Reports on lectures in Yamaguchi
Amnesty International Speaking Tour 2007
We are not 'terrorists' - 'Anti-terrorism' war and Human-rights in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
Yamaguchi
It is the reprint of the articles on 21 November and 8 December of NyokiNyoro? blog by Mr/Ms Kasaemon.
Lecture by Ms. Rabiye Kadeer bookmark
I attended the Lecture by Ms. Rabiye Kadeer supported by Amnesty on Sunday.
As it is suburban here, there were only 30 participants.
The opening session started in eccentric atmosphere with a disreputable looking middle aged guy in sweatshirt as emcee.
As I have listened on i-morley (*1, *2), Uyghurs are still being suppressed by the Chinese government and it is getting worse.
There was a story about the 'dirty' Ili incident.
Ms. Rabiye was an elegant lady but what she concealed in her heart was huge and that made her speech dynamic.
I found out that just listening to someone's voice and seeing and listening the person are totally different. The interpreter surprised me with his/her Japanese language skill. S/he didn't have any accent. I wonder how s/he studied Japanese....
Sometimes I felt the interpreter was too good as s/he might have interpreted the similar things several times.
4 sons and 1 daughter of Ms. Rabiye are still in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and 2 of the sons there are imprisoned.
By the activities of Ms. Rabiye, the treatment of the sons in the prisons gets worse ( but it is still unknown what is going on to them in the prison).
It was very heart breaking to hear that the daughter from Urumqi called Ms. Rabiye and told her the situation over there.
But the answer" I believe that my children understand and agree to my activities to save Uyghur people" for the question "What do you think your sons think about you?" was impressive and I thought she was a strong and straight forward person.
While the professors able to speak Uyghur language only are being unemployed and suffering to make living, what is going to happen to Uyghur people and culture? Do they have to perish?
Though there are not much information from Uyghur region in this information society in 21st century, I think it is too irresponsible to ignore the issue as the world is developing to accept the coexistence of the diversity.
There were attenders from Fukuoka and Hiroshima prefectures but most of them were the member of Amnesty ( it seemed).
It is not that I don't like Amnesty but there was a person who asked to make comment, not the question. ( As I didn't make notes, I'll just make the points).
"Chinese government is ruling the Uyghur region that has aspirations of independence
strictly to gain and govern the oils and rare metals. On the other hand, Japan imports those products and reaping benefit from it. I'm ashamed of the government of my own country. To loosen the suppression of Uyghur region, we should not rely on those things and create self sufficient society and the government should support that kind of society".
Ms. Rabiye thanked for the comment ( I wonder how it was interpreted).
Then the MC said "It was concluded beautifully and I would call it a day".
I was like, 'Is it okay? Is this it? Is it really the solution?!', but it seemed to be the end of the session.
During the question and answer session the donation box was passed. The speaking tour of Ms., Rabiye costs 1,500,000 JPY and they needed the donation.
I hope people read this article will make donation.
The below is the website that Ms. Rabiye introduced to us.
真silkroad? :http://kok2.no-blog.jp/tengri/
NB
＊1 http://i-morley.com/blog/2007/11/post_1117.html
＊2 http://i-morley.com/blog/2007/11/post_1118.html
I jotted down some of the words from Ms. Rabiye and I'll type those in time line.
"I'm here by the support of the democratic states"
"It might have been the first time for a famous political criminal released alive"
"Though the autonomous law of China allows to use the language of the minority's own, the use of Uyghur letters is banned"
"The professor from the University ( who was doing the research using the Uyghur letters) got fired"
"240,000 single female out of 9,000,000 Uyghur living in Kashgar were relocated to China. They ordered the pretty females to move first"
"Chinese ambassador in US said 'Forced migration in China is impossible'"
"The age of people ordered to migrant lowered from 16 to 14"
"Drugs and AIDS virus are taking hold in Uyghur region"
"What did we do to Chinese? - We gave them the land" ( I think she also said that the land was the origin of the people)
"The members of SCO are suppressing Uyghurs"
"They are relocated to Tarim basin side in order of intellectuals, bourgeois and religious people" ( About the forced migration of Uyghurs)
"Deng Xiaoping used to say 'Uyghurs are deprived because of the Gang of Four'. He also released people accused falsely, but the number of released was 0.1% of all"
(Below are concerning Ms. Rabiye herself)
"The Uyghurs around me were not into business and so I could expand the business without any competitor" (She was once the 7th richest business person in China)
"I delt with the Soviet nations mainly. There was a cultural distance between China"
"I paid many fold of taxes"
"I thought I could save the people if I become rich. I wanted to promote our people by listening to what China said" (She developed 7 story shopping center)
"I thought it (undevelopment of Uyghur region) was because of delinquency of local government. So I didn't appeal to the central government"
"If you plead the hardships of living, you'll be labeled as 'Anti-communist'"
"As it is written 'Uyghurs are foreign people' in Chinese school textbooks, Han people say 'Get out from the here' to us nowadays"
"I want support and I also want you to have a trip to land of Uyghur and let more people know about it" (The expectation for Japanese)
I just typed what I jotted down.
I'm afraid someone may complain "It's a poor text! Make a proper summary!" and before I receive complaints, let me apologize.
As I take the issue seriously and I don't want to make up things, I've typed only what I heard from Ms. Rabiye at the lecture.
